Missing Those Philippine Child Games

One thing that a Pinoy really misses when he is overseas are the games we usually play on the streets of Metro Manila or even in towns in the provinces. Remember those days, just right after school, we go out and play with friends in the neighbors. And we have our favorite street games. Mine is Taguan (hide and seek), what’s yours? Before, our street games are so physical, which was good, because besides enjoying the game, we are unconsciously doing physical exercise. That’s why we are so tough and we don’t get sick easily as compared to children nowadays as their games are very electronic like computer games or hand-held electronic games.
So, do you recall playing these games?

1. Piko – where we try to outnumber the “bahay” (box spots) of our opponents.




2. Tumbang Preso (Hit the Can) – how many times have you become “bagoong” (or the prolonged “it”) in this game?


3. Agawang Base – where we catch the other’s teammates to become our captives.


4. Patintero – the maze-like game bounded by lines guarded by the opponents.




5. Holen or Jolens – tossing round marbles out of a small circled-area on the ground.


6. Teks (small comics or cartoons cards) – we buy these cards and play with them and we either lose or win all our cards to our opponents.


7. Goma or Rubber Bands – those colorful rubber bands that we braid, the longer the better.


8. Chinese Garter – a girl’s game where they jump over an elastic garter, although this game is rather very Filipino and did not originate from China.


9. Syato – the game with two sticks where the loser has to run and shout the word “Syato”; a good vocal exercise.


10. Luksong Tinik (Jump over the thorns) – how we jump as high as we could.

Other games : Jackstone, Langit Lupa (Heaven & Earth), Touch The Color, Bahay-Bahayan (Playing House), Sipa (Kick) and some others.

But like the games children play today, we sometimes get addicted to playing. My brothers were like that. They sometimes get hooked with playing resulting into lower grades in their school cards. How my father boiled my brother’s boxful of teks cards and made him drink the broth, yuck! Not only that, he buried his jolens on the ground somewhere and burned his braid of rubber bands.
I wonder what kind of games will the children be playing in the future? Why don’t we try teaching our children our old games? I’m sure they will enjoy them as much as we enjoyed them some years ago.